attention

常用用法

attention表示“注意”時(shí),是不可數(shù)名詞; 用作可數(shù)名詞時(shí),指具體活動(dòng),表示“殷勤”“款待”,常用復(fù)數(shù)形式。
call sb's attention to sth 或call sth to sb's attention都表示要某人注意某事。bring sb to the attention of sb else表示“某事使某人得到他人的注意”。
一般來(lái)說(shuō)，要表達(dá)引起某人對(duì)某事的注意時(shí)，用call/draw one's attention to。表示用某事引起某人注意時(shí)，用bring the matter to one's attention，注意兩者不可倒過(guò)來(lái)使用。He wants to call her attention to the matter. 不可以說(shuō)I want to bring his attention to the matter.
pay attention to是固定的搭配詞組，不可以用其他介詞替換，如pay attention on。除了指“注意”，pay attention to還指“向女子獻(xiàn)殷勤”，如pay his attentions to the girl.要注意his后的attentions用的是復(fù)數(shù)形式；
有時(shí)候pay attention to后不直接加賓語(yǔ)，而是加動(dòng)名詞，to作為介詞。I advise you to pay more attention to recording new uses of old words. 我建議你要更注意記錄舊詞的新用法。
為引起大機(jī)關(guān)或大商店的某人或某部門(mén)注意，在寫(xiě)信時(shí)可在稱呼語(yǔ)后面或后面的下一行或兩行加Attention of ...，如Attention of Accounting Department。

這兩個(gè)短語(yǔ)形相近但義不同,前者意為“注意”,而后者表示“獻(xiàn)殷勤”“追求”“求婚”。例如:
You must pay attention to the teacher.你必須專心聽(tīng)老師講課。
Pay attention while I give you the instructions.我下達(dá)命令時(shí)你專心聽(tīng)著。
Pay no attention to what that drunkard says.不要介意那個(gè)酒鬼說(shuō)話。
The newspapers report that at the moment he is paying his attentions to an Italian countess.報(bào)紙報(bào)導(dǎo)說(shuō),他正在追求一位意大利女伯爵。
She said she hoped to repay all these nice attentions.她說(shuō)她希望能回報(bào)所有的這些盛情的款待。